In various communication networks, network elements such as switches or routers report their internal states for analyzing the network performance. Methods for monitoring and reporting the state of a network element are known in the art. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2014/0078915, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes techniques to facilitate the monitoring of occupancy of a buffer in a network device. Packets are received at a network device. Information is captured describing occupancy of the buffer caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device. Analytics packets containing the information are generated and output from the network device.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,282,022, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for diagnosing the performance of a network switch device. The method includes monitoring by a processor data generated by a sensor associated with a network switch device, the data relates to states or attributes of the network switch device. In response to detecting a determined condition in the operation of the network switch device related to the state or attribute, the processor generates an event trigger, and executes a forensic command in response to the event trigger. Executing the command includes sending information relevant to the determined condition for aggregation in computer storage and for analysis.